Heroes of the Storm Sylvanas Patch Highlights

“The Wrath of the Lich King was nothing, wait until they see The Wrath of the Banshee Queen!” – Sylvanas

It’s that time again, Heroes of the Storm today received a new Hero and a new patch along with her. Along with Sylvanas comes a list of skill and hero changes, a new UI, a new battleground and tons of polish for the game.

Patch Highlights:

Sylvanas has been added to the in game roster. Sylvanas is a specialist hero that can completely shut down towers, silence heroes and deal mass dps.

Tomb of the Spider Queen battleground has been added to the game, in this battleground you must fight Spider Minions and enemy Heroes to collect gems of power and hand them in to summon Webweavers to attack from each lane.

More gold has been added to the game, at account levels 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 you will receive 2000 gold (this is added to your account if you are already at these levels).

A 7 day Stim pack reward has been added to account level 10 (added to your account if you are already this level).

Team League has been added to the game. Grab some friends and battle it out in 5v5 pre mades for the top ranks.

The chance of getting the same map after playing it in the last game is now reduced by a significant amount.

The amount of exp ingame from levels 1-10 has been slowed, however from 11-20 is still the same.

Significant UI updates to Hero select, go check them out!

As always the list of changes in this patch is well worth the read of the full patch notes below or at very least make sure you check the notes for the Heroes you enjoy!

JUMP TO SECTION:

GENERAL

Performance

All players’ default Graphic Settings will be re-detected and reset following today’s patch, which may help to address a few performance issues that some players have been experiencing.

Smaller physical memory caps have been introduced for both the 32-bit and 64-bit clients with today’s update, which should mitigate some memory-related issues and make the 64-bit client a more trusted option, even for PCs with less physical RAM.

The “Network Spikes” indicator has been removed from the performance overlay (Ctrl + Alt + F).

Network Spikes tracked a number of different metrics at once. While it could indicate performance issues, the number of spikes displayed could also be affected by issues with the local player’s computer, among other things.

In order to avoid further confusion, the Network Spikes indicator has been removed, and will be replaced by additional performance metrics in a future update, which should help players better identify more common performance issues.

Deals 10 damage, and an additional 40 damage over 2 seconds, to target unit. This effect spreads to nearby units.

Haunting Wave (E)

Send forth a wave of banshees, dealing 30 damage to all targets. Reactivate to teleport to the banshees’ location.

Trait

Black Arrows

Basic Attacks and Abilities stun Minions, Mercenaries, and Towers.

Heroic Abilities

Wailing Arrow (R)

Shoot an arrow that explodes for 200 damage and silences enemies for 2.5 seconds. Can be reactivated to detonate the arrow early.

Possession (R)

Force an enemy Minion to fight for you. It gains 20% Attack Damage and Health.

USER INTERFACE

General

Significantly reduced the likelihood that players will receive the same Battleground multiple times in a row when playing in matchmaking game modes.

Requesting to join a party through a party member who is not the leader will now send a notification to that player. Additionally, the party leader will see which party member a join request was made through.

Progression System

Hero Progression

The maximum Hero Level has been increased from 10 to 20.

New rewards have been added:

1250 Gold at Hero Level 15

2500 Gold at Hero Level 20

Player Progression

New rewards have been added:

7 Day Stimpack at Player Level 10

2,000 Gold at Player Levels 20, 25, 30, 35, 40

Team League unlocked at Player Level 40

Players who had already reached or surpassed the level requirement for these rewards prior to today’s patch will also receive them upon logging in to Heroes of the Storm.

Team League

Initial implementation for Team League, the second mode of Ranked play in Heroes of the Storm, has been added to the game! Read on for an overview of the most competitive game mode in Heroes of the Storm, and then check out our recent Team League blog post for a much more in-depth look at the feature.

With Team League, players can create named teams with dedicated rosters in order to participate in ranked, competitive Heroes of the Storm matches as a group against other teams of similar skill.

In order to participate in Team League, players must meet the following requirements:

Reach Level 40.

Own 10 or more Heroes (weekly free rotation Heroes do not count toward this requirement.)

Create or join a team that has at least five members logged in and ready to play in Team League.

Team Creation and Management

Navigate to the Team League Play Screen, click an empty team slot, enter a team name, and pay 1,000 Gold to create a new team.

Players may participate in up to 3 teams at any given time.

The Team League Screen will display all teams that a player is currently participating in, as well as each team’s current Rank, team name, and Win/Loss record.

Using the “Roster” button, a team owner may invite up to 8 other players to join the team’s roster.

In order to play Team League matches, five members from the same team must enter the queue together.

Use the “Invite” dropdown to invite other players from the roster to queue for Team League matches.

A “Ranked Teams” section has been added to the Player Profile.

Click on any team to view additional stats for each player on the roster, such as wins, losses, highest rank achieved, and favorite hero.

The team owner can also use this screen to add or remove members, as well as disband the team.

Draft Mode

Team League matches will use the “First Come, First Served” version of Draft Mode, rather than Hero League’s “Predetermined” Draft Mode.

With First Come, First Served Draft Mode, players on each team are free to select Heroes in any order when it is their team’s turn to pick.

A coin toss will still precede the draft phase, and teams will still alternate picking Heroes in 1-2-2-2-2-1 format.

Menu Navigation

General

The menu navigation bar has been moved to the top of the screen.

The Party Panel has been reworked and once again displays Player Portraits for all party members.

Icons have been added next to the Party Panel, which more clearly indicate the current status of Stimpack and XP Bonuses.

Players who receive penalties for leaving Hero League and Quick Match games will now see their flagged status indicated to them in the menu navigation bar at the top of the screen.

Additionally, party members will now be better notified when they are partied with someone who has been flagged to receive penalties for leaving games early.

Home Screen

“Go to Shop” and “Try Hero” buttons have been added, which can be used to view information about the newest Hero or quickly start a game in Try Me Mode with that Hero directly from the Home Screen.

Shop Screen

Shop navigation tabs have been moved to the top of the screen.

A “Featured” tab has been added, which will display items that are new to the Shop, or are currently on sale.

Play Screen

The “Change Mode” button has been removed.

Game Mode buttons can now be found along the top edge of the Play Screen, and can be clicked to quickly switch among Game Modes.

Hero League

Heroes are now displayed on the Hero League Screen based on most wins, rather than most games played with those Heroes.

Click any Hero listed on the Hero League Screen to view it in the Player Profile.

Custom Games

The “Choose Map” button has been removed and Battlegrounds can now be selected directly from the Custom Games Screen.

A “Game Privacy” dropdown has been added to custom game lobbies. When a custom game is set to private, that game will not be recorded in players’ match histories.

End of Game Score Screens

The Rank, Quests, and Rewards tabs have been removed and incorporated into the Summary tab.

Summary

Player Level, Hero Level, and Rank progress bars have been visually reworked and reorganized on the Summary tab.

Daily Quest and progression rewards earned from the previous match are now displayed along the right edge of the Summary tab.

Hover the mouse over Daily Quest and progression rewards, as well as XP, Ranked Points, and Gold totals to display tooltips that indicate how each was earned during the previous match.

Stats

The Stats tab now mirrors the in-game TAB Screen, and includes details for Siege Damage, Hero Damage, Healing, and overall XP contribution during the previous match.

Ranked Play and Draft Mode

Draft Mode Notification

While tabbed out of Heroes of the Storm during a ranked queue, the player will be tabbed back into the client and a notification sound will play when a match is found.

Additionally, players who tab out of the client after a draft begins will be notified and tabbed back in when it is their turn to pick a Hero.

Rank and Point Changes

The number of points earned from a ranked match will now vary more broadly based on skill difference between teams.

As mentioned in the Menu Navigation section above, ranks, rank changes, and ranked points earned during the previous match are now listed on the end of game Summary screen.

Hero Select

Click the currently selected Hero’s 3D model to bring up Hero Select.

Filter buttons have been added which can be used to display Heroes by role and game universe.

A search box has been added which can be used to filter Heroes by name, difficulty, and game universe.

Icons have been added to indicate which game universe a Hero is from when mousing over that Hero’s portrait.

The Skins, Mounts, and Hero Info panes have been reworked.

The Hero Info pane has been replaced by two new buttons: Abilities and Talents.

The Abilities pane now lists Basic Abilities, Trait, and Heroic Abilities on a single tab.

Tooltips have been added which will display more detailed information about a Hero’s Abilities on mouseover.

The Talents pane lists all of a Hero’s Talents, much as it did previously.

The Skins and Mounts panes have received UI updates.

Each of these panes can now display many additional items.

Skin and Mount Variation buttons have been moved to the bottom of each pane.

The Skins, Mounts, Abilities, and Talents buttons have received updated art.

ART

General

Many Hero Models have received minor animation and pose updates on Hero Select.

Battlegrounds

Various Battleground assets have received additional optimization to help improve performance.

The final Tutorial Battleground has received visual polish.

Heroes, Mounts, and Skins

Legendary Skins

Mecha Tassadar has received massive updates and has been re-released as a Legendary Skin!

Mecha Tassadar will now, quite literally, transform into a fighter jet and fly across the battlefield while mounted.

What’s more, all of Mecha Tassadar’s Basic and Heroic Abilities have received brand new art, updated models, and visual effects which much more closely match the Skin’s theme.

Skins

Commander Raynor has received a significant model update. Among many other things, holster logic has been addressed.

Wrath Sonya has donned the Helm of Wrath, and now also wields Quel’serrar and Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood.

Several Hero Skins have received new art for certain Abilities and Talents, which more closely match that Skin’s theme:

As part of this change, Stoneskin and Hardened Shield have been renamed to Nerves of Steel and Ignore Pain in order to help reflect that they are Sonya-specific versions of their Generic Talent counterparts.

TASSADAR

THE LOST VIKINGS

A Lost Vikings-specific version of the Fury of the Storm Talent has been added at Level 20.

Every 5 seconds, the next Basic Attack will deal an additional 10 (+4 per level) damage to the target, and 10 (+11 per level) damage to all nearby Minions and Mercenaries. Each Viking has a separate cooldown.